Pathology and Tumor Biology

Seishi Ogawa M.D., Ph.D. Professor

Generally, any disease is resulted from individual genetic background and environmental effects, which are remarkably associated with genomic heterogeneity of human beings. This means that the alterations of specific genes play an important role in the environmental reactions leading to each disease. For the understanding and overcoming such diseases, it is essential to investigate the molecular mechanisms of mutual relations between the genetic factors and environment. We focus our study on the clarification of genetic significance and consequences in various neoplasms.

Research and Education

It is true that “genetic defects cause cancers.” However, it is more complicated and difficult to fully understand cancers than implied by such a simple statement. Cancer is consisted of the genetically heterogeneous multiple cells which are derived from cancer stem cells acquiring somatic mutations during the sequential divisions. Recently, the advanced sequencing technologies help us to identify a huge amount of new genetic abnormalities. However, it is still remain to be elucidated how the functional relevance of these genetic events, especially, the clonal selections of cancer cells escaping form the immunogenic reactions establishes the malignant characteristics with genetic heterogeneity.
For the breakthrough of cancer genetics and pathology, we would like to widely recruit motivated young researchers, who are interested in our field. We most welcome the applications from those who have academic backgrounds of various expertise for instance, bioinformatics, advanced genomics, and molecular cell biology, irrespective of medical or clinical experiences. Our mission is to foster excellent researchers who will be well-known and highly appreciated across the globe.